Prague Zoo to get rare Chinese monkey

Prague Zoo will soon have a Chinese langur. The rare primate will come from the Beijing Zoo due to an agreement Prague Zoo director Miroslav Bobek reached with his counterpart while on a trip to Beijing to attend an annual Chinese zoological conference.

In the long term, the Prague Zoo would also like to get a giant panda on loan from China, and have previously discussed that issue.

“Cooperation with the Beijing Zoo is now much broader,” Bobek said in a news release. “We today signed an agreement under which we in Prague will get a rare Chinese langur called a golden monkey, which so far is not kept anywhere outside of Asia. We also started acting also on joint activities of both zoos for the protection of endangered species in Central Africa.”

Bobek went to the conference to present information about the ongoing project to release Przewalski's horses from Europe back into their native habitat in Central Asia. Bobek was accompanied by Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová, and they opened an exhibition of 31 panels in Chinese and English that promote the Prague Zoo and explain its successes in helping to preserve endangered species.

Bobek also elaborated on the progress with Przewalski's horses.

“We have already agreed that Prague Zoo will coordinate the transportation of several Przewalski's horse stallions to the station in Jimsar and possibly the Kalamaili reserve," Bobek said. “The aim is to broaden the genetic base of Przewalski's horses in China, which have returned to the Dzungarian region. Transportation is planned for next year by a civilian cargo flight to the city of Urumqi and the ground station in Jimsar. But it is not impossible that some of the stallions after acclimatization could be released directly into the reservation Kalamaili, where about 145 Przewalski's horses now live at liberty.”

Since 2011, Prague Zoo has carried out six transports of Przewalski's horses to western Mongolia from the Czech Republic, in cooperation with the Czech Army. The most recent was in mid July, with the four horses going from Prague to a final destination in Khustain Nuruu National Park in Mongolia.

In total, the horses from Prague have had 15 offspring in the wild.

The Prague Zoo is already making preparations for a pavilion for breeding pandas, and Prague City Hall has but Kč 3 million toward he project in June. The total cost is estimated at Kč 35 million.

This year has been full of good news for Prague Zoo, with the birth of an elephant and a gorilla, as well as more recently an anteater.